textiles term 2 work

Throughout this term in textiles I have started another sewing project. I started making a dress ( not at all a good idea).
What I am learning: I am learning to work from a comercial sewing pattern.
How does this show my learning: I have worked from a pattern to make an item of clothing.
What could I do better: not choosing that dress ( very bad decision).

This is the pattern I am making. For a beginner it is quite complected. I really liked the look of this pattern and decided to give it a go after I finished my first pattern and had a fair bit of time left.
This was a project I started last year ( and by started, I mean cut out the material and did nothing else).

This is the top component of the dress, the top is form fitting and required darts. I learned to clip the edges of seams and darts so they sit better. I also learnt about stay stitching and how it helps keep the fabric together.

The base of the dress is black and the waistband and bottom hem is a red and white polka dot pattern to contrast the black.

Here I am sewing the top, the skirt and the waistband together. This was a little difficult to get my head around. I eventually got it to work and it was time to move onto the zip.

The zip was more than frustrating to put on. I had to sew it onto both the top and the skirt, meaning much material was in the way and got caught in the stitches, meaning I had to re-do and re-do it and re-do it again.

I tried on the dress and to my annoyance, the top part fitted really weirdly. There was no way to fix it. However, the skirt was still usable so we took the top part off and just worked with the skirt.

First we re did the zip, we used a shorter one because it was now just the skirt.
We then re-did the waistband. We used the same one as on the dress, just stitched it to only the skirt.
We also zig-zag stitched over the seams so they wouldn't fray.

The last thing to do was stitch on the bottom material. This was a band of polka dot material that would line the bottom. Stitching this on was easy and there were no mistakes ( that's a first). I zig-zag stitched over the seam and I was done. Finally.

This is the end product. I am proud of my work but am in no rush to do it again. At all.